Who's Talking, God or Me? Pt. 3 of 3

This is really weird!  I'm reading a passage in the Bible that has nothing to do with me and suddenly a verse pops off the page.  It's like someone has been reading my mail!  Or my Mind!!  Is God talking to me?  It could be!  God can communicate with us lots of different ways.  But because we are not very good at recognizing His voice, it is a really good idea to ask, "What confirmation do I have that this is God talking to me and not just me talking to myself?"

The best possible confirmation is Scripture.  Remember the Bereans?  Some guy named Paul came to town declaring, "I have a message for you from God."  So where did they go for confirmation?  The book of Acts answers, "Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so (Acts 17:11 - NASB).  Here's the best possible way to confirm that what has popped off the page is something God is saying to me:  Find the message repeated elsewhere in His Word.  So, I ought to examine the Scriptures to see if there is a clear biblical basis for what I think God is asking me to do in the verse that pops.  If there is, it's time to take action.

Here is a rich and interesting "confirmation principle."  It comes from Jesus who declared, “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself (John 7:17 - NASB).  It is NOT POSSIBLE for a man who is resisting God to receive confirmation.  My only hope of certainty about the source of a message (from God or not?) lies in meeting a prerequisite.  I must have already issued God a blank check.  I must  hold my heart in a place where it can say, "I am willing to receive from your hand whatever You want to give me, even if it is not what I would choose for myself."  The man whose heart says this is a candidate for confirmation.  The man who cannot say this will not be able to confirm the source of something that might well be from God.  How scary is that - to have a word from God in your possession, but to be unable to validate that it is from God?

Let's extract two other insights from this passage.  How can you know whether you have issued God the aforementioned blank check?  Once again, we are brought back to Scripture.  The man who is "willing to do His will" is the man who is obedient to everything he already understands from Scripture.  There is not an issue of glaring disobedience in his life that voids his blank check.

Second, notice the "if/then" elements in Jesus' statement.  "If anyone is willing, . . . [then] he will know."  This is God's announcement of a partnership.  Remember (see yesterday's post) that the Moses, Balaam, and Belshazzar accounts all reveal something about our God.  He is aware of men's need for confirmation and willing to take steps to address it.  This is something truly marvelous about our God.  It fills me with joy and wonder.  God WANTS me to know what He thinks!  Most important people don't consider me worth their attention.  But God does!  In John 7:17, there is an implicit promise from God:  If I am willing to do His will, He will take care of the confirmation problem.

When we get down to it, God's commitment in this regard is a life saver.  (Literally!)  No man has within himself the capacity to validate God's Word.  Only God can do that!  So, when God says that the man who is willing to do his will is a guarantied recipient of confirmation, He is pledging Himself to provide that confirmation.  How will He do that?   That's HIS department, so I can't say - but I know that the means could be as varied as a stick that becomes a snake, a talking donkey who can explain danger, and access to a man of God who knows how to read the handwriting on the wall.

There are more confirmation principles, but I imagine I have said enough to stir up the pot.  If the pot gets to bubbling, I might add a post-script next week.  Have a great Thanksgiving!

Comments

[MBV]

"Why is it that when we talk to God we're said to be praying, but when God talks to us we're schizophrenic?" - Lily Tomlin

OK, so this is somewhat different from the original question that you are addressing and that may be why it has not come up - but does God speak to us today without using Scripture as the "voice"? He did not do so in the three examples - so I was wondreing what you (or other LW readers) thought about Him doing so now.

[Alex Marshall]

I think its possible. I think God can certainly use any venue he wants to speak to us. I think scripture is much more certain, though, and so it acts as a confirmation of any other message. God won't contradict Himself, and we are much more certain of what He says in scripture being authentic than something we might think He's saying elsewhere. So scripture acts as a good measuring rod for anything else- if it's not in line with scripture, it is probably not of God.

[jg]

Thanks for this post. It makes a lot of sense to me. I understand that we must have made a commitment to obey before God will confirm the direction He wants us to take. However, I wonder if there are some times when we think we have written the blank check only to find that we didn't really have sufficient funds to cover it! Ok, that's probably not going to happen; God won't ask us to do anything He doesn't equip us for, but it sure feels like He does sometimes! This may be a bad example, but Jonah didn't want to obey what he understood to be God's voice. Had he made the commitment to obey, and then discovered that there was something he was holding back? Same thing for Abraham concerning his son Isaac. Maybe we can commit as much as we know of ourselves to obedience, but I wonder if God sometimes asks us to do things that shine light on those things that we must let go of, things that we didn't even know were hindrances to our relationship with Him. Kind of cuts to the heart with the hardest thing first, you know?, which in turn will determine the outcome for the rest of our walk with Him. Like the priests who had to step out into the Jordan before it parted, maybe we have to step out in obedience before the strength comes to carry out God's will?
Also, about the other confirmation principles, I think another issue is dealing with coincidence vs. God's hand. If I have committed everything to Him, there is no longer room for coincidence is there? I am allowed to see significance in everything that happens because I am recognizing Him as being in control of everything, right?